Shattered Image
by ObsessivePassion
Summary: Cat's flying back to LA after a two week long absence. She's expecting her friends to be there, Jade specifically. Will Jade stay true to her promise? CADE of course. 70th Cade story!


**This is so weird. This is what I dreamed of last night...weird. My mind is stuck on Cade. I might not be able to convey exactly what I dreamed of well, cuz I can't recall all of it, so it may be a little choppy.**

* * *

**Shattered Image**

"_Now boarding flight 1013 to LA. Now boarding flight 1013 to LA."_

A young girl, about sixteen years old, jumped up from her seat and made her way to the boarding gate. She rushed passed the slower people and was the first in line. She held out her ticket to the lady at the gate and smiled brightly. The woman merely stared at her brightly colored hair before slowly taking the ticket and passing it through the scanner.

"Miss Valentine?"

The small girl nodded and waved. The woman nodded and offered a much smaller smile before letting her through the gate. Cat squealed as she hurried down the walkway. She bounded towards an unsuspecting flight attendant and collided into her. The tall woman stumbled forward but composed herself quickly. She turned around and plastered a big, fake smile on her face, just like she was suppose to.

"Hi and thank you for choosing Southwest Airlines." She said through clenched teeth.

Cat didn't seem to notice the flight attendant's obvious hostility. "You're welcome!" She brushed passed the surprised woman and chose to sit in row one seat C. She set down her bag and looked up to see the woman staring at her.

"Hi! What's your name?" Cat asked politely. It's common for Cat to ask random flight attendants their names. She loves talking to people.

The woman was trying to decide whether Cat was oblivious or just plain stupid. "Marissa." She said, trying to sound pleasant. Cat was too radiant in her opinion. No girl should be that happy at six in the morning.

Cat nodded before smiling and waving at the other passengers who were boarding the plane. Marissa stared at her from her seat by the pilot's door. _'God, this girl should be a Walmart greeter.'_ Marissa shook her head and quickly smiled at the remaining passengers entering the plane. She stood up and went to the intercom phone.

"_Good morning passengers and thank you for flying Southwest Airlines. My name is Marissa and I will be your flight attendant today. As you've noticed this is a small plane, so the seats should all be full."_ She checked to see if this was try before continuing. _"Please place all large carry-on bags in your overhead compartment and your smaller bag under the seat in front of you. This will be an hour long flight and I will try to make it as comfortable for you as I can. Again, thank for flying Southwest, and I hope you enjoy your flight._" She hung up the phone and sat down.

Cat clapped from her front seat and said, "Yay! That was so nice!" Passengers sitting near her either stared at her in confusion or chuckled at her cuteness. Cat pulled out the latest Sky Store magazine from the pocket in front of her. She flipped it open. "Ohmygod! A refrigerator that talks!"

Marissa rolled her eyes and mumbled to herself, "This is going to be a looooong flight."

Marissa collapsed in her seat. For the past forty minutes she'd been going back and forth between her seat and row one. Cat was huge maintenance. She pressed the 'help' button any moment she could. It was either "more rootbeer, please' or 'do you have any candy' or even 'do you have this' and pointed to a picture of a ten foot long stuffed giraffe that sings Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. If it wasn't any of that then it was her constant need to tell her about her high school, Hollywood Arts, and her oh-so-lovely friends. Marissa was thinking about grabbing an emergency parachute and jumping out of the plane. Seriously.

Cat had finally calmed down when Marissa gave her a bag of tropical skittles that she stole from a little girl. Fortunately, the little girl has yet to notice. Cat was humming a cheerful tune to herself while munching on a pink skittle.

_'Surprise, surprise.'_ Marissa thought when she saw Cat picking out only the pink ones. Marissa checked her watch and sighed. _'Only seventeen minutes left. I can do this.'_ She groaned when she saw the 'help' light flashing for row one seat C. She dragged herself out of her seat and leaned against the threshold that separated the passenger seats from the bathroom. She barely managed to stop her glare and asked what she wanted.

Cat just looked at her thoughtfully. "You remind me of Jade." She said simply, gaging Marissa's reaction. The older woman blinked. Jade was the one Cat talked about the most. Cat described her as 'rough but sweet'. "When you first meet her you'd think she's mean and angry all the time. But then you get to know her and realize she's actually a real sweetheart." Cat grinned, a light blush staining her cheeks. "She's amazing! Her voice is so beautiful and deep. Her eyes are grayish, blue and sort of cold, but they melt my soul..." Cat babbled on about Jade's apparently attractive features, but Marissa tuned it out.

She realized that Cat hadn't mentioned her and Jade's relationship, unlike every other friend she talked about. _'Let's see...Tori is her best friend, André is a really cool guy friend, Robbie is really weird but still her friend, Rex is a puppet and just a friend, Beck is a close friend, Trina is a spazz but you can learn to love her, and Jade...?'_ Marissa tuned back it to what Cat was saying.

"...and her hair is so pretty, I want to touch it all the time!" Cat giggled. Marissa noticed how Cat's eyes sparkled and how she couldn't seem to stop smiling. "She has a nose piercing and it really fits her bad-girl image." Her eyes became half-lidded. "Her lips are very nice, too. They are full, pink, and soft." Cat tentatively touched her lips like they were tingling. Marissa's eyes widened, but Cat didn't notice. She sighed dreamily. "I want to kiss them forever."

Marissa stared at Cat, not sure how to respond. But she didn't have to.

_'I have turned on the fasten seatbelt sign, so please return to your seats and buckle up. We will be landing in our destination soon. I hope you enjoyed the flight and I ask that you please fly Southwest Airlines soon. Welcome to Los Angeles.'_

Cat squealed and pressed her face to the window as the plane descended into LA. Farther and farther they fell until, at last, the wheels touched down to the ground. Cat bounced excitedly in her seat as the plane pulled into a gate and the captain had turned off the fasten seat belt sign. She grabbed her bag and hopped out into the aisle. She was impatient, however, when Marissa was opening the door. Cat busied herself with texting all her friends and updated her Slap profile:

_I'm in LA! I can't wait to see my friends again! Two weeks is toooo long!_

Mood: Excited :D

The door finally opened and Cat darted out, but not before saying goodbye to Marissa. The flight attendant sighed and waved at the passing passengers. She heard Cat singing as she walked away:

"I'm going to see my Jade, my lovely, lovely Jade..."

Marissa shook her head and let a small grin express her emotions. Her expression quickly turned guilty when she heard a little girl ask, "Mommy, where did my skittles go?"

* * *

Cat speed walked to baggage claim where she was meeting her friends, most importantly Jade. She and Jade had talked over videochat almost every night when Cat was in San Francisco, but it just wasn't the same as seeing Jade in person. She had invited Jade along on her trip, her uncles love Jade, but she had to decline. This dampened Cat's mood considerably when she left Hollywood, too depressed to even say bye to Jade. She got over it by the time her plane landed in San Francisco. She was already missing her by then, too.

Cat ran down the escalator and searched the crowd for a familiar face. She spotted a brunette waving and calling her name from amidst the crowd, but not the brunette she was hoping for.

"Hey, kido, how've you been?" Tori greeted when Cat got to her.

"I've been great, Tori!" Cat said enthusiastically, looking around at her friends. André, Beck, Robbie (which means Rex was there too), even Trina had showed up. Cat immediately figured that Tori had made her come. She looked behind her group of friends to see if anyone was hiding or lost in the crowd, but no one she knew was there. No Jade.

Cat frowned, and adopted a look of a crestfallen little girl who didn't get to have candy for breakfast. "Where's Jade?" Tori, André, and Beck glanced amongst themselves as if they weren't sure how to answer.

It was Trina who spoke first. "She slept in. She said she'd meet you at your house." Trina shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. But Cat was heartbroken. She and Jade were planning this since before she left LA. Being away from each other wasn't easy, so Jade promised she'd be the first person Cat would see at the airport. Apparently, Jade either forgot or didn't care. Cat hoped it was the former. Cat didn't see the appreciative looks the others shot Trina. Though she did notice how confused Robbie looked, as if he was being left out of something.

Robbie tried to include himself by asking, "When's lunch?"

* * *

Cat sat mournfully quiet in a retro burger joint, still in the airport. She watched her friends happily stuff themselves with french fries and onion rings even though it was seven thirty in the morning. She wasn't hungry. She only accommodated her friends because they all loved this restaurant, but, truthfully, she really just wanted to go home. _Not because Jade will be there_, Cat tried to convince herself, _I'm mad at Jade. I don't want to see her. _She repeated that in her head until she was sure she believed it. She picked up a fry and shoved it into her mouth, then chewed mercilessly. Her friends mumbled amongst themselves and glanced nervously at Cat, knowing her bad mood was because of Jade.

Tori didn't know how much longer she could put up with this. She was terrible at keeping secrets, especially from her best friend, plus she didn't like seeing Cat so upset. She squeezed Beck's arm, trying to get him to console her not to tell. "How much longer?" Tori whispered impatiently to Beck.

"Only a few more minutes, promise." Beck took out his phone to see if he had any text messages, but he had none. He sighed uneasily. "If it doesn't happen soon, then I'll tell Cat myself."

Tori shook her head. "No, we'll tell her together. I don't want you to take all the blame."

Cat wasn't listening to her friends' bickering, choosing to stare at her pear phone. She was hoping Jade would magically call her and tell her this was all some kind of prank, like she didn't forget about her. She felt her eyes watering, but she didn't do anything about it.

Tori couldn't stand it anymore. She slammed her hand on the table and moaned in defeat. "Sorry, Cat. This is all my fault." Tori admitted, letting her head fall against the table.

"Hey, I was the one who asked her to do it." Beck argued.

"Yeah, but I was the one who convinced her." Tori retorted.

"I'm the one who backed out in the first place." André cut in, feeling bad he was the one who started it.

"What's going on? I don't understand." Cat was trying so hard to figure it out. Jade wasn't here and somehow it was their faults. Her eyes narrowed. "What happened? Why isn't Jade here?" If Cat wasn't Cat she would be seething, but she wasn't...because she's Cat.

"Well..." André's eyes begged for Cat to understand. "It started when I got this gig at a wedding. But, then my drummer got sick and I couldn't find anyone to replace him. So I ended up giving up and asked for Beck's help."

"I went around the school asking if anyone wanted the job," Beck continued where André left off. "Nobody wanted it. So...I asked Jade."

"Begged was more like it." Trina interrupted, rolling her eyes.

Beck glared. "Anyways, I _asked_ Jade if she would sing solo at the wedding. Of course you know what she said." He gestured with his hand as if wanting Cat to cut in and Cat understood.

"She said no." Cat said blankly. Was this supposed to lead somewhere?

"Correct. So then I went to Tori..." Tori rolled her eyes and took over.

"Beck came to me and asked if I would sing solo. I would have said yes if Trina hadn't said that if I was singing at a wedding then it would be a duet. Me and her. So I turned down singing at the wedding because, trust me, no one should hear Trina singing slow songs." Tori and André shared a look, both shuddering at the memory. Trina huffed and grabbed a handful of onion rings.

"Jade was our last hope." André said. "We tried everything. Promising to do her homework for the rest of the semester, spray ourselves with cheese and let seagulls peck at us at the beach, throw ourselves into breakaway furniture, _everything_. She still said no." Cat couldn't help but grin. Jade was known for her stubbornness. Only Cat could break her and it wasn't easy.

"In the end, I kept bugging her about it until she finally relented. 'If I say yes will you leave me alone?' we compromised." Tori concluded, looking guilty.

"So, what does this have to do with anything?" Cat wasn't getting it. Why were they telling her this?

Tori, Beck, and André glanced at each other. Robbie ate his lunch in silence, completely taken by the conversation. "The wedding was this morning at six thirty. Don't ask why the wedding was so early, 'cause these people are crazy. They wake up at like four every morning. Anyways, we totally forgot that today was the day you were coming back. Once we realized this we tried to coordinate a way to get her here by the time you got here, but I doesn't look it it worked." The three friends hung their heads, angry at themselves.

Cat just blinked. She wasn't sure whether she should yell, cry, sympathize, or laugh. Right now she felt like crying. Jade _did_ forget about her.

"Whoa." Robbie was staring at something behind her. Even Rex's jaw dropped. Tori, Trina, Beck, and André followed his gaze and took on similar expressions. Cat curiously turned around to see what so amazing. And, wow, was it amazing. Beautiful actually.

There was Jade. She was hunched over and panting, her gaze locked with Cat's. She wore a gorgeous white dress that hugged her body as nicely as Cat could. It stopped just above her knees. Black two-inch high heels and a fair amount of jewelry, and no sign of spikey black bracelets or chokers. Cat had never seen anything so breathtaking in her whole life.

It looked like everybody was looking at Jade now. She shot them dirty looks and tried to ignore their stares, but she looked a tad flustered by the attention. Nervous too, which was a first. Jade approached the table and Cat stood up on instinct. She was mesmerized. This beautiful girl—woman before her, was hers and hers alone. It was an incredible feeling. Her heart swelled.

Jade had no idea what to say. For one, she was nervous out of her mind. She'd never worn white before, let alone a white dress. She didn't think it was 'her', she looked weird. She was completely oblivious of the hungry looks the men, and some of the women, were sending her. She just thought they were creepy. Cat, however, noticed and felt very possessive. She quickly took initiative and tugged Jade into a mind blowing kiss. The restaurant exploded in hollers and whistles, their friends included.

Cat pulled away panting. She wasn't sure how the heck she was able to survive without Jade's kisses for so long.

"I missed you like crazy." Jade was the first to admit. She held Cat close.

"I did too. I really did." Cat nuzzled Jade's neck. Normally she would nuzzle Jade's cheek, but she was too tall for her to reach.

"Awww! That's too cute!" Jade tensed and Cat sighed. She felt Jade steel herself and she knew the mood was ruined. She turned in Jade's arms until her back was flesh against Jade's front. Tori flinched at Jade's icy glare. "I ruined the moment. I tend to do that a lot." Jade instantly agreed.

Despite this, Jade's glare didn't cease. She continued to glare at her 'friends' at the table, except for Robbie, who really had nothing to do with this. He and Rex just wanted retro burger food. Jade tightened her grip on Cat as she started speaking—yelling, "Do you have any idea what I had to go through to get here?" They winced and looked down. "I had to drive in a car with some creepy old woman who wouldn't stop staring at me and asking me why I have a 'shiny dot' on my nose, until I practically bailed out of the car. I had to steal money from a hobo to pay for a taxi that only got me a few blocks from the airport. Then I ran the rest of the way here!" Cat found it very amazing that Jade still looked absolutely gorgeous after all that. "You three owe me. Big time." She pointed at them as she said this, just to make things clear.

Cat grasped Jade's finger and held it cutely. "You did all of that for me?" Cat asked in a small voice.

Jade blushed and nodded. "Yes."

Cat didn't know what to say. She was touched beyond words and now she felt like crying all over again. She kissed Jade fiercely and felt Jade moan into her mouth. She pulled back only for a second. "You know, the whole white thing kinda changes your whole image."

Jade glanced down at her outfit, suddenly self-conscious again. "Does it really look that weird?" Cat wanted to giggle but felt that it would hurt Jade's self-esteem. Jade may be rough, but she was sensitive too (though not as much as Cat).

"You look kinda hot." Tori said bluntly.

Jade stared at her. She wasn't sure if she should thank Tori or yell at her for having these thoughts. She chose to stick around somewhere around the middle.

"Shut up." She mumbled, though it wasn't convincing at all.

"Wow." André said in awe. "White makes you nicer."

Jade slapped her forehead in exasperation. She knew she should have never said yes to singing at a wedding. But she knew it was too late to change it. Her image was shattered. "Don't think flattering me gets you guys out of your punishment."

The three guilty teenagers quickly looked away. Jade smirked.

"I want all the money from the wedding gig. I know you three split it. Give it here." They bowed their heads and sorrowfully handed over the $1000. Jade grinned.

"So, Cat. Do you feel like going out to that really fancy restaurant tonight? I'll pay."

Cat giggled and squeaked, holding Jade just a bit closer. "I'd love to."

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**Okay, so when I started writing this, I was trying to decide whether I should change my dream to something completely different. I was thinking that I should change Marissa to Jade's character then continue the story from there. But I stuck with my dream. I might do that idea another time.**

**4/1/11**

****Edited! And made a few changes and additions.**


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